Price is a signal of quality, and free is actively harmful to marketing to the best customers, because they consume virtually no meaningful services for free and because it suggests that there is a hidden cost like “You disappear down the road” they’ll pay later.
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Off the cuff riffing about the challenges a business faced? No charge because that was not the product; it only existed to suggest that I was capable of producing the product. If a coffee conversation went well and someone was a qualified buyer, escalate to “Want a proposal?”
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Incidentally, and this goes out to many creative friends: you need to have restrained professional confidence and boundaries. I have watched people get mad and burn bridges over “Can you come give a talk at my company?” because they were offended about being asked for free work.
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A better response to that is: “I would be happy to give you a proposal for a training engagement. What did you have in mind?”
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In the worst case scenario, you’re about two more questions from a hard No. Talk to a good lawyer sometime informally if you want to see someone very good at this in action. They are generally good about informally giving pointers but if you ask for a contract review Shields Up.
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End of conversation
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